Exclusive: Chocoa shines a light on cocoa’s future

Finding long-term solutions for the future of cocoa formed the hot concluding topic of key presentations for the final session of Chocoa’s Amsterdam Sustainable Cocoa Conference, writes Neill Barston.

A packed two-day event was brought to a conclusion in thought-provoking fashion with several industry experts, kicking off with Gianpaolo Rando, CEO of SwissDecode, a pioneering food quality, authentication and compliance business that has made strides across the sector.

During the past decade, it has set out to make a key impact in terms of seeking to change the way companies certify everything from finished products through to plant-based commodity ingredients such as cocoa. On the latter, he expressed considerable concern over the state of conditions in West Africa in relation to the growing threat of swollen shoot virus that was considerably impacting the region.

It’s an especially troubling situation, given that cocoa industry estimates have shown that more than 200 million trees in total have been lost since the disease was first identified in the 1930s. Increased incidents of this unwelcome crop blight have been reported in both Ghana and Ivory Coast.

“The swollen shoot virus is different from other viruses we know, and is like Covid. What I am concerned about is something that is invisible with it – the virus itself is visible, like an ice-berg in West Africa, but it is the fact that it has a long latency period that is not seen.

“For a couple of years trees can be infected, and they are contagious. They can still produce cocoa, yet still not show any symptoms. We know that this is in Ghana and Ivory Coast, but how do we know whether it is now in other countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria or Brazil? We can’t tell with it not being visible.”

In terms of a response, he said that the industry should take note of how global communities tackled the pandemic in delivering mass testing, starting in cocoa nurseries and moving on to forest initiatives, which has so far been done with PCR style rapid analysis of plant health.

As he explained, while this is not quite a comparable speed for as with human testing using such systems, but explained it was possible to gain results within an hour of analysis.

He detailed a key visual of map showing farms within West Africa that had already been tested, noting that there were still gaps in that coverage, but he was hopeful of progress that had been made to date.

“We don’t do PCR testing for Covid any more, so I hope that there is a time when we don’t have to do any testing for swollen shoot disease. So together with other partners, we are thinking about the genetic diversity of cocoa around the world, as there may be some strains out that there are resistant to swollen shoot virus, which will be done over the next five years, and will do our best to identify varieties that are resilient to diseases.”

He noted that there may already be precedents for sharing solutions to the issue, citing a case of a variety of cocoa in Ivory Coast known to be resistant to the Witches’ Broom disease that agricultural communities are seeking to use in Brazil, and posed the question whether within the South American nation there may be strains of cocoa that may be suitable to combat the spread of swollen shoot virus.

Environmental compliance `

Adding a note of regulatory assessment, Fanny Butler, head of markets for Koltiva, a sustainable agriculture and traceability business, producing tech solutions for global supply chains, spoke on the tests that the much-publicised EUDR regulations are set to have.

The new mandatory legal framework is regarded as a core pilar of policy that will help safeguard the environment, and help support core supply chain communities.

As Butler noted, the regulations place the onus on firms to prove they are deforestation free, including commodity sectors including cocoa and soy markets, had been anticipated to start from the end of last year, which has now been set back to December 2025.

Furthermore she explained, there are now several key areas for affected businesses to consider, with the onus on them providing complete transparency with regards to where their products are from and that they have been produced legally in the country of origin.

In addition, companies must now deliver risk mitigation initiatives, that can take the form of measures, capacity building and new policies to reduce or eliminate those issues. From there, companies are then required to produce a due diligence statement that underlines all the steps taken to ensure the security of data collection.

A different perspective on cocoa
For the concluding presentation, Alex Shandrovsky, of California Cultured, the US-based ‘alt choc’ brand that has specialised in producing lab-developed cocoa cultivated directly from cocoa beans, explained the company’s vision for playing its part in meeting heightened demand for cocoa. (Watch our recent exclusive video interview with Alex below).

As our title has reported, there remains an global deficit in supplies that the business, with the company among speakers at our 2024 edition of the World Confectionery Conference asserting that it believed there was very much a place for its operations alongside conventional production methods. It has already gained success in striking a deal with leading Japanese chocolate company, Meiji, as well as support from European key ingredients enterprises including Puratos. 

For his part, in a move to engage the audience, Alex Shandrovsky took a play out of rock music gig territory in asking the assembled crowd in Amsterdam for a ‘selfie’ photo to send home to remind the much-travelled business development manager still existed.

In showcasing the potential for laboratory-grown chocolate, he drew parallels with the fast-emerging lab produced diamond market, which has continued to gain traction as a sustainable alternative.

“We have two different functionalities for cell grown cocoa, indulgent cocoa and functional cocoa – indulgent cocoa performs exactly one for one with some of your favourite chocolate, but it has no lead or cadmium. So we are the only solution in the world where you would have zero heavy metals in your chocolate,” he asserted of its still-evolving proposition.

“With functional chocolate, if you want to have 500mg of flavanols, which is one of the best things about it, you’d have to have three bars of a conventional bar, but with ours, that is in just three squares,” he added of the other key aspect of the chocolate’s potential.

As he noted, the company’s model of development is the latter category, of functional flavanol as its starting point, as well as supplements, powders, and moving on to chocolate development.

He continued: “So would people actually buy products like this? According to Barry Callebaut, up to 60% of individuals would look for chocolate as a way of gaining health benefits,” adding that in the North American market, consumers were increasingly looking towards products that were perceived to have strong nutritional values as regards overall wellbeing and health.

Critically, he also noted that production of its chocolate could be undertaken anywhere around the world, and harvested on a weekly basis, which would be a major factor in scaling-up operations. Related to this, the company has estimated that actual production costs will be on parity with conventional production methods inside five years.

Session moderator Anna Laven posed the question of whether the company’s offerings actually tasted comparable to conventional chocolate, and whether it would threaten cocoa producers.

In response, Alex added: “Does it taste like real chocolate? Our investors, who are some of the leading investors in the world believe it does, and have done sensory testing on it. 

“I believe that with milk chocolate ranges, you will not tell the difference, but with dark chocolate, 70%-85% cocoa, I don’t think we’re as good yet, but we could get there,” noting that he believed that cell-grown cocoa could have a positive impact in terms of bringing overall market pricing down from the present comparative highs that it is experiencing. 

Such present market volatility has been of particular concern from sector observers, investors and companies around the world, meaning the potential for alternative production streams remains considerable.

Responding as regards its impact, he concluded that “there is currently an existential crisis in cocoa, where supply is not meeting demand,” adding that its solutions would not replace existing producers in the present value chain. Furthermore, he noted that the business accepted that not all consumers would accept the concept of lab grown cocoa, but believed there would be a space for both forms of production. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related content